At least three people were killed as a shallow 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia's Java and Bali islands on Thursday (Oct 11), a government official said.

The victims in East Java's Sumenep district perished after being crushed by collapsed buildings, national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.

"The earthquake happened early Thursday when they were sleeping and the quake suddenly rocked so they didn't have time to evacuate," he said, adding that damage caused by the tremor was not widespread.

"The quake didn't trigger any tsunami for sure," Dwikorita Karnawati, head of Indonesia's geophysics agency, told AFP.

The quake's epicentre was in the Bali Sea around 40km off the eastern end of Java island, according to the USGS, and was felt in Denpasar on the holiday island of Bali. 

The quake struck at a relatively shallow depth of 10km, according to USGS data. Shallow quakes tend to cause more damage.